FA Cup Footballers From 1988-89 Featured In Match Magazine: Photo

While cleaning out my garage over the weekend, I came across an old box of football/soccer collectibles. I haven’t peeked inside the box yet to see what’s in there, but I thought I’d reach in and pick out the first thing that was near the top. And it just so happened to be a sheet of FA Cup stickers that was stapled to the front of the popular Match magazine from England.

The stickers are from 1988-89. I didn’t keep the magazine, but it’s interesting to take a look at some of the players featured on the sticker collection. The most notable thing is that it’s a mixture of players from England and Scotland (there’s the Scottish FA Cup, as well as the English FA Cup). I’m not so sure Scottish players would be featured so prominently these days given the decline of Scotland’s top flight league.

As far as the footballers who are featured, there’s the candidate for QPR manager (Mark Hughes), as well as Steve Archibald (post Tottenham), Steve Nicol, Alex McLeish (looking very thin), as well as veteran footballers Colin Hendry, Ian Ormondroyd, John Sheridan, Chris Waddle, Gordon Durie, Alan Smith and others.

No offense to Paul Moulden, but I don’t recall what contributions he made to City.

Feel free to post your observations about the stickers in the comments section below. If I find any more interesting items in my box, I’ll be sure to share them.

About The Author

Publisher of World Soccer Talk, Christopher Harris founded the site in 2005. He has been interviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and several other publications. Plus he has made appearances on NPR, BBC World, CBC, BBC Five Live, talkSPORT and beIN SPORT.
Harris, who was born and raised in Wales, has lived in Florida since 1984, and supported Swansea City since 1979. Last but not least, he got engaged during half-time of a MLS game.

10 Comments

FernandoJanuary 9, 2012

The first thought is that it seems most of the players have the same uniform haircut. The other thought is that most of the shirts they’re wearing are awesomely retro.

I used to get Match every week – never forget how excited I used to get waiting for the postman to deliver it every Tuesday. Do you remember the League Table tabs that you used to get at the start of every season – used to take forever moving each of the tabs up and down each week and generally got bored of it after week 3

I remember the Shoot league ladders too. Same with me. I’d always get so excited when they came out, but within 3-4 weeks of the season, I gave up using them! I have yet to find a person who used them all season long.

Nice article, Gaffer ! Just gave me a nice nostalgic feeling since I had the pleasure to watch them play on TV except Mooney, Archibald and Moulden. The only ones I didn’t recognize were Mooney and Moulden.

I think I have a Panini sticker album for 1986 World Cup too. Plus I still have an almost complete set of 1994 World Cup cards (I think there was only one player I didn’t get). I have to look at them in my storage.

For a good laugh buy the hilarious book “Footballers Haircuts” awesome Afros, dodgy dye jobs, ridiculous bleaches, the absurd extensions; the blinding highlights, pudding bowls, the out of control barn fires, and not forgetting, of course, the ultimate footballers’ haircut, the magnificent mullet.